When it comes to literature an authors have many possibilities of how to end a story. It is a very difficult process for authors to pick an ending that truly fits their purpose of the story. This is why writers have been known to change the endings of texts when requested by a public audience. The short story "Boys and Girls", written by Alice Munroe, is a tale about the profound unfairness of sex-role stereotyping, and the effect it has on rites of passage into adulthood. The protagonist, who is also the narrator of this story, is a girl who goes unnamed. The story ends with the girl having a choice about whether to keep a gate open and let a horse escape from certain death, or to close a gate and by doing so retain her father's trust. The way in which this story ends leaves the reader wondering about possible conclusions, and whether the ending chosen is in fact the best. In my opinion, however, there is no question that Munroe has chosen the most intriguing ending for her story.
             One possible ending to Alice Munro's "Boys and Girls" is that the girl in this short story shuts the gate on the horse to keep it from escaping. This is an example of something not typically done by a girl and is indicative of the fact that girls can perform in the world just as well as boys. With the feminist movement taking place in the earlier part of the twentieth century, it would have been easy for Munro to have written her story to suggest equality of the genders. This would have been a weak ending because in reality they are not equal. The girl believed that as she got older and older she would be able to help her father more and more. In reality she would not be able to handle some of the emotional and physical demands that she would have to face.
             Stopping the horse is only one of the possible endings. Another ending could be that instead of the father excusing the girl letting for the horse out, and saying &qu...